First week complete!

First week complete!

Just kinda was dropped into everything that we left. Worked on our scenes with Dexter, where I have to do two because of only having nine in the class. I actually love being able to work with two, it gives me an opportunity to work twice on everything we are learning.

The scenes I'm working on are:
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Strangers, Babies.

My partner and I are doing the first scene  in Strangers and Babies. A baby bird flies into the glass balcony window of our flat and May (my wife) is incredibly worried for the bird and wants to take care of it. I (Dan) am trying to keep May from being upset and getting overly attached to the bird. There are undertones of the perturbed past of May, and the strain it puts on our relationship.

Dinner with Friends.

I just rushed over to my best friends house (Gabe) after having a fight and hatefilled sex with my soon to be Ex-Wife. I'm coming over to Gabes house to tell my side of the story of why I cheated on my wife. It comes out that I cheated because we've lost our spark, but the scene is really between how Gabe reacts and handles/treats everything.

We have this incredibly awesome breakdown, and added with Dexter's coaching, its really eye-opening.  Can't wait to see how the rest of the scenes go.
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Feldenkrais

We did two ATM (Attention to Movement). First was trying to put a book on the sole of our foot, then without holding the book, try to move it around the room. It was quite frustrating but fun at the same time. Learned a lot about how we think when given a problem, and the progression of using our bodies to fix said problem when given restrictions (No crawling, hoping, etc.)

Second ATM was laying on one side, and trying to see how we move our legs on both sides of our spine. How we did it, how far we could do it, how efficient we do it were all explored. We also were given a task, on one side we had to press the floor with our heel, then the other our toes. It made me realize that I limit ourselves and not thinking about how we can go in two planes.

Linklater

After our first day of reviewing last quarters work, we started exploring how our tounges work, and how much tension we hold in it. It was really interesting, and really hard to explain.

Stage Speech

This is one of the new classes! We are learning how speech is actually formed. It seemed incredibly difficult to understand, but once it was explained I think I'm following.
http://www.paulmeier.com/ipa/consonants.html

There is a website going over what we learned. Click the symbol and listen to the sound. Basically we learned how those sounds are made with how we move our mouth. Really cool, and going to help with dialects later on! Coolness!

Yoga

Yoga. I yoga'd.

Meisner 

Wiki that. It's really cool, a new acting technique that we are learning. Also hard to explain.

Seminar

Big quarter of learning Shakespeare basically. We had our first class learning the history of theater from the greeks to the Renaissance.

That was my week! Tried to explore the city, but wasn't out too long. Cleaned up the apartment and just settling in to being in the city again.

Back from break!

So, sorry for the hiatus, I'm awful at keeping blogs, I'm hoping to change that to journal my experiences so when I look back I can go "Yes I can remember that", or whatever. 

So I'm back from break! Long 6ish week back to Ohio to hang out with my dogs, help my family at the house and do whatever odds and ends I needed to do. Also volunteered at my old highschool helping students with drama and theater! It was very rewarding and actually quite fun. 

This semester I'm working in all the same classes as last year, except for no more improv =(

Instead! We have Meisner Technique, which is exciting, and also Stage Speech! 

On top of our master classes/workshops, the MFA class is going to start doing our own projects, and we are going to work on a play I wrote. Exciting!

I'll keep you posted as much as I can! 

Into October I go!

This week was pretty hectic for some odd reason, even though I thought it was going to be a little easier than last week.

Felden- We learned more about the whole skeleton, which is really super weird if you think about it. Can you honestly sit there and tell me you feel your bones? Basically Mondays class we laid on mats and people felt our bones. Super weird.

On Wed we did probably what was my favorite thing of any class. We tool 40 min to walk in "slow motion" in a park. Really fun, really intriguing, really eye opening on the body.

Acting- We only had one 3 hour session this week, where we did our monologues. I'm doing the first monologue from Dog Sees God, and I'm going to work extra hard this week with a classmate to get it more "real". Super excited to work on text.

Yoga- I'm really starting to look forward to this class, learning more forms, and all that jazz.

Vocal- Starting to work with text now, and how to combine that with our exercises.

Improv- I think I'm really getting an Improv reboot, which I'm thrilled to do. Its funny that I have yet to see an Improv show, and I've been here a month.

Seminar- Started with the Greek Tragedies from Aeschylus...still a fun class.

Aerials- Sweet God, Knotted Silks kicked my ass. Video and Pictures to come.

MFA workshop- Working with David from Looking Glass, learning how to create new pieces of theater!

Shows that I saw this week-
I saw Good People at Steppenwolf this Saturday, fucking amazing. This would have been the first High Caliber play that I've seen. Very good show, and I highly suggest going and seeing it.

One Month in Chicago

Last week was intense! We had a master class for a full week with the Tectonic Theater Company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tectonic_Theater_Project) which was really really awesome and an awesome experience. We learned about theatrical elements, and how to incorporate that with text to make new theater. Really fun and I really enjoyed it.

Fend- Learned about joints, and how they work, and how to use them. (I know that my short reviews don't really tell too much about the class..but some of these classes are incredibly hard to explain). Today (Monday 10/1) We learned more about bones structure, how they feel. 

Acting- This week we finally start on monologue work! Excited to work.

Yoga- I'm really starting to enjoy this class..but 45 min into it..it is the bain of my existence.

Voice- Another hard class to explain..but today we started dropping actual words into our process..learning a lot about the breath.

Improv- Learning a ton about scene dynamics.

MFA workshop Aerial Day 2- Spanish Web

I loved this! It was incredibly fun, and although it took me a while I got most of the exercises/tricks/movements. annnnd I have photos!

Show I saw

I also saw DePauls Spring Awakening, and Chicagos longest running show "too much light makes the baby go blind. I'm sure you guys know about Spring Awakening, musical, edgy, great music. Too much light is sooo cool. Its basically 30 plays in 60 min, very fast paced, very funny, very...just fun! I really enjoyed it.

September 22, End of the full second week

This week was full of interesting experiences. So, lets get started!

Monday-
Feldenkrais- First frustration. I also learned that this class will be hard to explain, so I'll try my best. It was basically how to roll up from laying down. I know, it sounds weird.

We started with learning how our joints work in our hips, pelvis, knees. What happens if you twist a certain way. So laying down on your back, we brought our knees up, and brought them to standing. Then we rolled the knees to the side, learning how the joints work, and how it turns our body to the side. Then, we learned how to reverse that, and to bring ourselves naturally up to sitting.

I know, its hard to explain.

And, I didn't really get it at first. And by first, I mean for like 45 min. Quite frustrating. But, I think by the last try I finally got it. But that didn't help my frustrated mood.

Acting- Told life stories. Tears were had.

Tuesday-
Yoga- Stretches were done, Tears were had.

Voice- Learning more how the voice works, the "sigh of relief" turned into a sound...again, hard to explain.

Expel your breath, hold it (Don't hold it enough to pass out) and feel that "need" to breathe in. Take it, and when your full of breathe, exhale and repeat. That 'need' to breath is called a "pang".

Now, instead of breathing out normally, think of doing a sigh of relief, and exhale on a "fff". You should think of doing the sigh of relief during the "pang" moment. It shouldn't be a push, just a simple sigh of relief.

Turn then the sigh, into a verbal "haaaaaaaaaaaaah". Then with verbal instruction we turned it into a "huh huh"  (Which, again, im doing a quick runthrough of what we did, there are tons of instructions that I am not saying, because it would take forever to type out)

Improv
...we improved. So much stuff.

Wed- 
Fend-Learned more about our arms/ribs. Hard to explain. Again. Basically, lay down on your back. and grab your elbows, in a square like fashion. Then twist. Feel what moves.

Thur-
Yoga- Stretches were done. Tears were had.
Voice- Added some speech to the sigh of relief.
Improv- Lots of stuff again, love this freaking class

Fri-Busy day
Yoga- I THINK I FIGURED OUT DOWNWARD DOG THANK GOD YES

Voice- One on One session, talked about some personal issues about what I think about with voice and why I try so hard. Very interesting.

Seminar- Talked about the Poetics, and the Republic, and about theatrical criticism.

Aerial Class-
Okay, so the MFAs get to do some wonderful stuff, and one example is a 6 week Aerial class. IT IS AWESOME. We learned some Trapeze basics. It was very very taxing though. I went home and was in bed by 9:30. I will try to get some photos of this though.

And thats my week!

First week of full classes complete

So my first week of full classes is complete! Not much to report, still kinda new and learning the basics until we dive into our books and techniques. 

Fend-Learned how we limit ourselves without even thinking about it. Our professor is also really fucking awesome.

Acting-  Got the monologue that I'll be rehearsing, it will be from Dog Sees God, and CB's first monologue. 

Yoga- Things are getting a little easier, but still a class that is kicking my ass.

Voice- Learning the basics of breath, and sound creation.

Improv- My stress reliever class...starting getting on our feet and played freeze for the first time this week. I love my MFA class in all my classes, but here we get to play together!

A friend of mine and I went to see the awesome show Idomeneus, I really enjoyed the show, like everything about it was awesome. Direction, designs was just awesome. Really really cool.

I also went and saw the show Seascape, design wise was a very pretty show, and although the acting was pretty good, some spots were a tad over the top. (I know, prize winning theater commentary right there)

Thats its so far! If I think of anything else, I'll post it!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

So I decided to try to write a journal based on my experiences in coming to Chicago, my work as an actor/theater artist/ my M.F.A work in DePaul, and anything else I feel like writing about at that given day.

Today being the second day of "real" classes (not counting last week W-F schedule, which consists of meeting professors and all that fun stuff). So, I'll try to recap everything.

First off, let me say, that DePaul so far seems like it is going to be an amazing experience, and I already love my M.F.A class of '15. I could go into bigger detail on why I love it, but I'll try to keep it short. Basically, my feeling of DePaul, they care about the art, they care that you are getting what you paying for, they care about your success's and your failures, and they care about you.

The Fall Quarter Classes
I'm taking two movement classes, Yoga, and Feldenkrais. Yoga is pretty self explanatory, but I urge you to check on what Feldenkrais is. It's an amazingly cool subject, of teaching oneself to learn how to move, and erase any bad habits you may have. Figure out how you move, why you move that way, and learning a different way to move.

One Acting Class- Which We haven't done much on it yet. So I'll keep you informed. So far we talked about being neutral, and we practiced it by sitting in a chair in front of  people and just sitting there for two minutes. Fun. Intriguing really. We actually got a surprise from a non-actor popping in the room because he thought he had class in there. Long story short, he was a lot better at being neutral, then us worry-prone wanting to be perfect, actors. Well, to me anyway.

Improv Class- If you know me, you know I've done improv for a while now, and I can't wait to learn more things!

Voice Class- So far we've learned about our voice and some bad habits.

MFA workshop- This is kinda hard to explain. Basically we do things that enhance our theater artistry. I'll leave it at that until I have my first post about it.

And some class that I can't think of the name of but an important Class! We talk about the history of theater, theater going on in chicago, how it all relates.

And thats it! I'll try to keep you updated for my records and for anyone following who stumbles upon this.

Living in chicago for a week and a day!

Zach